how to make custom plastic cheap

[ICEG]

well i had the bright idea of making my own fairings using a moathod called vacuforming or thermo forming

any thoughts if it can work

[Dan Dubeau]

any thoughts if it can work

yes. Thats how Braada made his cowls. To make you're own former you're looking at a couple hundred and up. you'll also need a good source of power for the heating element when you get into anything large enough to do body panels in one shot. The big ticket item is the vacuum pump. I've had my eye open for one locally for under $200 for a few years, and there has only been a couple, and they've been beat. If you're going to buy a former, then you're looking at more money. It's not cheap, but it's usually the cheapest way to make things out of plastic. Body panels are usually very suited to thermoforming, If you're not trying to replicate all the fairing mounts the same as OEM. You'll have to get creative in that dept. Mould's can easily be made out of plywood to bring the price down for short production runs.

It's a pretty popular DIY thing, and there a quite a few website that will fill your head of all the info required to get you started. I've got alot of them bookmarked, but not on this computer or i'd post them up. will later if I get a chance. good luck

[brooder]

Check out http://www.instructables.com/ and search for vacuum former. A lot of the ones you'll find are for smaller projects, but they'll give you a good starting point. And honestly, a shop vac might have enough pull (not positive though since ABS would be a bit thicker/stiffer than what most of the folks use). As Dan pointed out, finding a way to heat the plastic is going to be the toughest part. It's going to have to be a large element. That site has how-tos on building those as well, though.

[tone]

Vac forming gives a good finished article if your mold is good enough but glassfibre laminating is far more simple & cheap to set up imo

tone

[brooder]

Vac forming gives a good finished article if your mold is good enough but glassfibre laminating is far more simple & cheap to set up imo

tone

Either way, you have to have a mold to go with. Vacuum forming allows the use of ABS which is much better for motorcycles (in my opinion). I've thought about this in order to sell on e-bay if nothing else. However, I don't have the room or initial cash outlay to build the plastic heater and former.

[HexKrak]

Hmmm this gives me lots of ideas. I've been thinking about doing a fibreglass under tail (for a pre), but frankly this looks a ton easier.

[tone]

brooder.....I'm with you on abs being a better material for bike parts just mentioned glassfibre for the same reasons you thought of it eg cheaper

Hexkrak.... once you have a mold for something like an undertray making a few is really quite easy all it takes is a little guidance on safety & use of the materials

If anyone wants any advise on glassfibre lay up i'd be more than willing to help
cheers tone

[StevieB]

yes. Thats how Braada made his cowls....

You mean MADE (past tense) them. He seems to be lost in the Ozone these days.

[Dan Dubeau]

You mean MADE (past tense) them. He seems to be lost in the Ozone these days.

Exactly why I wrote "made" instead of "makes" . c'mon Stevie, give me a little credit.

[StevieB]

Oh, man, Dan, you and I are gonna bet banned...

[acraze]

*peeks in
*scratches head
*leaves

[BlackWidow]

Not to hijack the thread but i have a question. Is it possible to make a mold with fibergalss of the original body work and then duplicate each peice. For example I would love to be able to have a second body made of fiberglass so that when i do track days if i go down I am not messing up my original body and then i can always just build another set out of the mold. Any thoughts/ideas on this?


Thanks

[HexKrak]

After you make the mold it should only take a couple hours per piece to make a new set of farings (after the first time).

[tone]

Not to hijack the thread but i have a question. Is it possible to make a mold with fibergalss of the original body work and then duplicate each peice. For example I would love to be able to have a second body made of fiberglass so that when i do track days if i go down I am not messing up my original body and then i can always just build another set out of the mold. Any thoughts/ideas on this?


Thanks

This is exactly how its done professionally the only problem being you risk losing some paint on your original parts due to the heat caused by the chemical reaction of the resin & mepk mix curing, for this reason we usually use new & unpainted parts to make the mold from

The plug itself can be made from a variety of materials, the main materials used for the plug are wood, laminates, alluminum etc sometimes pattern makers foam will be used for a complicated plug but body filler as suggested somewhere above has no place in a professional laminators workshop as curing can affect it in the same way as it does paint
tone